Chapter 5&6
I was lucky that Uncle Jack was home when I
got there. He was in the American army under Captain Bradley. Uncle Jack was
staying over in New York up along the Hudson river, near some place called Cold
Spring. Aunt Besty took me into the kitchen. It was nice to be with all of them. Aunt Betsy fed me some corn bread and salt pork. As I was eating I told them the story about
all that had happen today, about Pa dying and Ma getting taken back to New
York. As i was talking I saw this tall white person walk into the kitchen. It was Captain Ivers
wife. She looked at me and said, "Who is this?" Aunt Betsy said,"It is my sister’s
child. Her name is Wilhelmina." I got up and curtyed, like what Ma taught me to
do. Mr. Ivers wife asked why I was dressed up like a boy. Uncle Jack and Aunt Betsy
explained how I came from New London and how Pa was killed and Ma was taken off
by the British. Mrs. Ivers told me I couldn't stay there with them. Mrs. Ivers
was being very rude to Uncle Jack and Aunt Betsy about me staying there with
them. As they were talking Captain Ivers walks into the
kitchen and said, "whose nigger boy is this?" I said, "Nobody’s sir, i am a free
nigger." He just looked at me for a second.
He asked how I got down here. I told him that I took my Pa’s jolly boat down
here. Captain said I could stay, but I would have to work for him. I knew I couldn't stay there long because he would keep me, and I would have to get my
freedom again because I didn't have the freedom papers. I thought to myself when
no one is looking I could sneak down to the beach and take the jolly boat to
New York and try to find Ma. So about four days later I can up to the house for
supper time, and Mr. Ivers had a note that needed to be delivered to one of his
workers. So I said I would take it to them. He just gave me this look, like he didn't trust me to take it. He gave it to me anyway. Once I got out of the
house I ran for the beach were I put the jolly boat. I threw the note on the
sand and got in the jolly boat and left.
As I was sailing off I saw the shape of sails
in the distance. I tried to make my way back up to where I took off in case it was the British. The next thing I know is that i am surrounded by some Americas
boats. They grabbed me out of the jolly boat and threw me into their boat. They didn't know I was on the America side so I had to explain to them that I was on
their side. First they thought I was a spy, and I couldn't tell them that I ran
away so I said I had friends in Stanford. I had to tell them the story about my
Ma and Pa. they finally trusted me and let me go with them to attack the British. Sometime I guess I
dosed off and I woke up to being pulled on to a beach. I could see shapes of
men jumped out of the boat onto the beach. I took the chance and sat up. We
were in an inlet. There were high bushes and woods beyond. Then someone grabbed
me by the shoulder and said get out of there boy. So I got out of the boat and
the men were disappearing into the darkness. I was wondering if they would just
leave me behind. But then I noticed twenty men standing around the boats as
guards. What could I do? I could slip away in the dark into the bushes. The men weren't paying much attention to me they were just in there group talking. So I
went over to the water acting like I was getting a drink and grabbed some
stones. I looked to see if they were watching me, and they weren't So I took
one of the stones and though it into the woods. The guards heard it and looked
but they just started talking again. So I threw another one into the woods. The
guards started walking over to the woods away from the boats and me. So I threw
the last one I had, the guards got their guns and kept saying whose there, whose
there? As they were looking into the wood I hide behind some bushes and trees
by the inlet. After a while I run as fast as I could and I came to a fence. On the
other side of the fence there was a little dirt road. I jumped over the fence
and started down the road. I stared west and I was moving at a pretty good
pace. About an half an hour later there was a bigger road. I walked all day to
the west and slept in a bard that night, and walked all day the next day. I don’t
know how far I had went but I knew if I just kept going I would bump into Manhattan
Island where New York was. I went through three or four little villages. Once I
got a ride from an Old Darky who was driving a wagonload of potatoes. He gave me some to eat. Finally, toward the
afternoon I began smell the ocean. There was a river and on my side was just a
marshy beach and on the other side was New York!
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